Not going that far, but we certainly are usually pale. The Japanese are more relatable to the Chinese, yet maybe a touch lighter skinned. Since posting this I've learned it has more to do with the art style and characterization than anything. Read below for details.

In real life, people have thousands of tiny differences that set them apart, but in anime, characters have to look different without having as much detail as a real human being. Most anime characters have light skin tones because it makes it easier to differentiate characters with darker complexions when the base is light. As far as hair and eyes go, it's the same thing. Eyes are big so you can see the color; hair styles and color vary from the typical black hair that most Japanese people have because you have to set characters apart based on appearance.

I didn't think that they were. A lot of Japanese people have quite fair skin, and the typical anime eye style isn't reliable when depicting race. You never really know unless the setting calls for it, artist chooses to differentiate the style between white and fair-skinned Asian, or the creator states it outright. You and me see most anime characters as white because we are white and that's what we think of when we hear the word "human." This applies to the typical Japanese person, except they see most anime characters as Asians like themselves.

Eh, actually that's only one possible explanation and it leans on a lot of coincidence and psychology. I personally prefer the explanation I popped in above because it gets right to the root of the issue and from there you can trace the development of anime into what it is now.

Oh, I remember reading a little into what you wrote below some time ago; I just didn't think to use that in an explanation. Western animation had a huge influence on Japan, yes, but that's not what I was trying to get at (though I'm not trying to refute anything that you wrote). I'd give more examples, like how what I wrote in my previous comment applies to things as simple as stick figures and not just anime, but I'd just be repeating myself. To be honest, while I know that most anime characters are Japanese, I still see them as white in my own mind unless a style that purposely makes physical characteristics more akin to Asians is used.

In the end, I was only trying to explain that most anime characters are not white and only that. It's pretty much a given considering most anime takes place within Japan and characters have Japanese names. While the western influence on Japanese entertainment was huge (thus affecting art styles), that doesn't change the race of characters.

Well, though I carelessly missed it out, another reason is that it's a ******* cheaper to have your manga characters being white as the paper the manga is printed on (it also makes the images easier to see because tanning would lead to shading which would darken the pages, leading to less contrast between the lines and the filling.)

Because manga characters are white, so are their animé counterparts to save rocking the boat.

Your explanation is valid, however I think it is less an explanation as to why it is how it is, rather I think it is a very good explanation as to why it's never changed. People find their ways round the issues and all. If people don't see a problem then where is the point in rocking the boat, after all.

After WWII Japan wanted to make T.V. but they couldn't because most of their actors were trained in classic Japanese theatre as opposed to the western acting techniques. Because of this they found alternate routes for creative expression, namely manga. Inspired half by the comic heroes of the west and half by early animations like Mickey Mouse and the Looney Tunes Manga took form and from there spread to anime.

The style of people being coloured and drawn in a more western fashion persisted all throughout the evolution of anime until we get to what we see now. Anime, though it's changed a lot over the years, can still be traced back to it's roots.

This is also why there is so much slapstick humour in anime, because there was a lot of it in the cartoons the original mangaka were inspired by. However, whilst the slapstick and over-the-top movements have become more tame in America Japan have kept it as over the top and abrasive as ever it was, if not more-so.

Quick note, hair colour is another oddity in anime that arguably came from the japanese culture wanting anime to have a lot of colour to it to counterbalance the black and white manga format.

There you go. A quick deconstruction of aesthetic styles in anime with a few extra titbits thrown in on the side.